“If we kill all the owls, for example, someday we’ll be up to our ribcages in mice.” – Republican Governor Tom McCall
Tom McCall Waterfront Park borders the Willamette River as it flows along downtown Portland. The park opened in 1978, replacing Harbor Drive, a semi-freeway that separated the city from the then severely-polluted river. Waterfront Park was given its name to honor Tom McCall who served two terms as Oregon’s governor, from 1967 to 1975. Gov. McCall’s enduring legacy is his advocacy of land-use planning and his anti-pollution leadership.
James G. Blaine represented the state of Maine in the House of Representatives – where he served as Speaker – and the Senate. He later became Secretary of State and ran for President in 1884, losing narrowly to Grover Cleveland. In that campaign, Blaine visited every state except one, Oregon.
Eighty years later, Oregon author and journalist Stewart Holbrook, with tongue in cheek, founded the James G. Blaine Society. Concerned about environmental issues and population growth, Holbrook took Blaine as namesake of his non-organization. He felt that Blaine, having never set foot in Oregon, should serve as a model to others.
Tom McCall, Oregon’s governor from 1967 to 1975, earned notoriety when extolling the state’s natural beauty, he urged people to come visit, but added, “For heaven’s sake, don’t move here to live.”
Since that time, Oregonians have blamed the influx of Californians for everything from escalating home prices to crowded freeways. (Oregon universities encourage Californians to come. In this age of diminishing financial support for higher education, Oregon universities like out-of-state tuition.)
California has begun doing its part to help. An article in my former hometown newspaper reports that for various reasons, the area is suffering a shortage of workers. In fact, it’s so bad that “Jackson Family Wines just offered a job to an Oregonian because it couldn’t find anyone in California with the skills to program the computers that control high-speed bottling lines.”
The summer of 1970, a year filled with anti-Vietnam War protests across the country, was headed to a climax with the American Legion’s national convention opening in Portland on August 30. The Oregonian newspaper reported that Richard Nixon was to address the gathering. Portland had witnessed its share of demonstrations; this could be the mother of them all. The FBI informed Governor Tom McCall that the so-called Peoples Army Jamboree was organizing to bring 50,000 protestors to disrupt the convention. (Later, evidence showed the FBI had made up the number. Some things don’t change.) Continue reading “American Legion – Then and Now”
